In her review [Foreign Service Spouses, Winter 2000] of my book, The Accidental Diplomat: Dilemmas of the Trailing Spouse, Linda Killen faults the book for saying little to diplomatic historians. If that is the kind of book she is interested in, she should have reviewed Jewell Fenzis .That book does address the kinds of topics Killen seems to have been looking for in my book, topics that she says are still unexplored in the literature. My book is not a history but a sociological analysis of how and why the lives of diplomats wives are constrained and determined by their husbands profession, and the ramifications for the women, their marriages, and the Department of State. Ms. Killen may believe this is unimportant, but to Foreign Service, military, and corporate spouses, as well as to Americas government and top corporations, it is an issue of increasing importance.

Thank you for your message concerning the review of your book. Im sure youre aware that very frequently authors gain the impression that the reviewer has read some book other than the one he or she wrote. I myself have had that experience -- and the reviewer spelled my surname wrong, to boot. ~Ed.

REPATRIATION FROM WARTIME JAPAN

March 5, 2000

Can you suggest any reading material covering the embassies and the repatriation of the officials from Japan. I'm looking for some first hand accounts that are verifiable.

Yes, indeed, I can. A member of the journal's editorial review board, Dr. Roy M. Melbourne, was a young US diplomat assigned in Japan at the time of Pearl Harbor. He was interned and eventually repatriated. Dr. Melbourne is the author of (1993). You may contact him at 2701 Pickett Rd., #2049, Durham, NC 27705. (Dr. Melbourne is not on the Internet.) There are others without doubt, but this one name, for obvious reasons, springs immediately to mind. To seek out others, we'll put your query up in our "Letters" section of the current issue. ~Ed.

THE MEN OF THE ASTP

March 10, 2000

I found your commentary while looking for information about the ASTP [, by Curtis F Jones, ]. I cannot find other sites with information on ASTP; could you provide a link or information regarding names of men who were in the ASTP at Univ. of Nevada, Reno?

Thank you for your message. I myself have no information on other Internet sites concerned with the ASTP, but we will post your communication in the journals Letters section. Possibly another reader will be able to help you out. ~ Ed.

SOURCES ON U.S. POLICY IN LATIN AMERICA

March 4, 2000

I am working on my senior thesis on American Foreign Policy in Latin America during the 60s and need to find some good historical sources. I am writing a historiography, and I am not very familiar with American historians who have written about this period. Please, give me some feedback on this.

You have an interesting and challenging topic. If I were you, I'd start with Richard Dean Burns, ed., Guide to American Foreign Relations since 1700 (1983). Others monographs specifically in the Latin America field (addressing the question from differing perspectives) are Cole Blasier, The Hovering Giant(1985); Walter LaFeber, Inevitable Revolutions(1993); Robert A. Pastor, Whirlpool (1992); Stephen G. Rabe, Eisenhower and Latin America (1988); and Bryce Wood, The Dismantling of the Good Neighbor Policy (1985). Note that you will have to look up the complete citations to the aboveI've given a very brief versionfor your bibliography. Best of luck with your thesis. ~Ed.

No one understood better the important relationship between geography and world history than the great British geographer, Halford John Mackinder. . . . Mackinder had a strong curiosity about natural phenomena, . . . a love of the history of travel and exploration, an interest in international affairs, and a passion for making maps. . . . Mackinder pointed out that although the physical facts of geography have remained substantially the same during recorded human history, it was only at the beginning of the twentieth century that the globe became, in political terms, a closed system. [FULL TEXT]

It is even possible that the United States will cease to exist as we know it over the next century, either because Mexican immigrants reconquer the Southwest, or because American society fragments into hostile ethnic and special interest groups, or because of some unforeseen breakdown in our constitutional government. Conversely, the U.S. may cease to exist as we know it by merging into some larger entity, for instance a Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Association uniting the European Union and North America. [FULL TEXT]